Diseases

What is ulcerative colitis?

In order to understand this better, we must first know a little information about anatomy and physiology of digestion.

To put it very simple digestive system consists of a very long tube which connects the mouth to the anus. Once we eat the food, it leaves the mouth and enters the food pipe and then descends to stomach.

Food remains in the stomach for some time to get mixed with digestive juices and secretions. Food then passes to small intestine which consists of three parts namely duodenum, jejunum, and ileum. The small intestine is part of the digestive system where most of the food is digested with the help of digestive juices from liver, gallbladder, and pancreas. This digested food is absorbed in the form of nutrients.

The ileum is a part which connects to the large intestine.It is commonly called as the colon. The large intestine consists of the cecum, appendix situated on the right side of the abdomen. Large intestine then divides into ascending, transverse and descending colon. The last part of this descending colon is called as sigmoid colon as it looks like alphabet S. Sigmoid colon then opens into the rectum. The main function of the colon is to absorb water from the food residue. The residue is stored in the form of stools in the rectum until we get bowel.

Ulcerative colitis is a disease condition in which inflammation and ulceration of the inner lining of the rectum and colon (large intestine) occur. Small ulcers develop over the lining of the rectum and large intestine which bleeds and produce pus and mucus.

Recovery Test

Recovery test is a simple guide devised by my similia doctors to get an idea about chances of recovery. You need to tick answers to simple questions to get the results.